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Russia Suffers One of Its Bloodiest Months of the War as Ukraine Gains Ground
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![Photo of Ivan Khomenko]( "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
Russia suffered nearly 43,000 battlefield casualties in July 2026, making it the Russian military’s highest monthly loss figure since January 2025, while Ukrainian forces recorded their largest territorial gains in more than a year.
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According to the New York Post on August 15, citing Ukrainian Defense Ministry figures, Russian forces lost 42,860 personnel killed or wounded during July. The newspaper described it as the fourth-highest monthly casualty total since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The latest figures bring Russia’s overall personnel losses closer to 1.5 million, as Moscow faces growing pressure to replace troops lost on the battlefield.
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The New York Post reported that Russia has increasingly relied on recruitment campaigns offering prospective soldiers what the newspaper described as misleading promises of relatively safe service. Moscow has also recruited foreign nationals, including people from African countries, to supplement its forces.
Russia has additionally received manpower from North Korea. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in August that Russia could bring another 30,000 to 50,000 North Korean troops into the war.
The personnel losses came as Ukrainian forces reported significant advances along the southern front. According to figures cited by the New York Post, Ukraine regained nearly 780 square kilometers (301 square miles) and returned 26 settlements to Ukrainian control.
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Ukrainian forces pushed Russian troops back by more than 11 kilometers (6.8 miles) in an area near the junction of the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.
The advances represent Ukraine’s largest territorial gains in more than a year, according to the newspaper, and have been achieved through a series of localized operations rather than a single large-scale offensive.
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-011527f54c2d77010a0d3071445bab7a.png "Map showing the location of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky in Russia’s Rostov region. (Source: Ukraine’s General Staff)")
